27 Jun Heavily Armed Police Storm Plane After Pilot Told Everyone They Were Being Hijacked

Traveling by plane is statistically one of the safest ways to get around the globe. However, this fact doesn’t seem to correlate with the number of people in this world who suffer from aviation anxiety.

Of course, tragic stories like that of  9/11, flight MH370 (the Malaysian plane which is still missing after four years of intense searching), and Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (which was shot out of the sky as it flew over Ukraine in July 2014) make it difficult to be comforted by the fact that more than 100,000 planes safely fly across the sky on a daily basis.

And, whilst 2017 may have been the safest year in the history of commercial air travel, there is still a long way to go until people will feel truly comfortable whilst sitting in what is essentially a tightly compacted tin can, while it floats 30,000ft through the air.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to prevent and preempt all disasters and as a result security at airports is tighter than ever.

That was proven on Tuesday when New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was put on lockdown after a grounded plane sent out a distress signal alerting the authorities that there was a hijacker on board.

Watch the chaos in this video clip captured by another passenger at JFK airport:

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Now as we all know, airports are extremely volatile places at the best of times (this is coming from someone who has been frisked at more check-in desks than the average person), but when you add a potential threat to the situation, all hell breaks loose – especially in the US, where the horror of 9/11 is still incredibly potent.

And, all hell really did break loose at JFK on Tuesday.

The traumatic incident began after a stricken signal was sent by JetBlue flight 1623 as it was grounded on the tarmac – but that was only just the beginning of the passengers’ turbulent journey.

The flight, which was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles, was quickly surrounded by armed SWAT members and police officers, who demanded that the confused and terrified passengers keep their hands in the air.

As chaos erupted on the plane, the pilot tried restore the peace. However, it was to no avail, despite the fact that the plane was not being hijacked.

Instead, it had been suffering a radio signal failure. In his attempt to remedy the situation, the pilot sent a signal to air traffic control – however, he pressed the wrong button and instead informed them that his plane was being hijacked.

As the police descended, the pilot realized his error. However, he was unable to explain the situation due to the fact that the plane’s radio was broken.

In an attempt to fix his mistake, he allegedly held up a piece of paper to the cockpit window with his telephone number scrawled on it, asking that the police ring him – but, that only made matters worse.

In a statement released by JetBlue, they claim that the incident was the result of a miscommunication:

“Shortly before departure, Flight 1623 from New York JFK to Los Angeles experienced a radio issue impacting the crew’s ability to communicate and a false alarm was sent to JFK tower. While communication was reestablished via alternate channels, authorities responded in an abundance of caution. The aircraft was cleared and returned to the gate for inspection.”

The plane had been due to depart at 7:30 pm and had left its gate on its way to the runway. But the plane never got that far.

When air traffic control couldn’t contact the plane’s pilot, they became concerned and 30 minutes later an armed response team was on the scene.

Watch as the SWAT team burst onto the plane, terrifying all the passengers onboard:

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Terrified passengers took to Twitter to announce their relief at having escaped a nightmare situation.

The aircraft was eventually cleared, revealing there to be no danger.

Passengers then boarded an alternative flight to Los Angeles after a new pilot arrived – however, its scheduled arrival of 11:53 pm was not achievable, instead passengers touched down at LAX at 5am.

It’s certainly a sensational story, one that doesn’t help minimize the stigma surrounding air travel!

Thankfully everyone on the plane was able to make it to their destination – although, they may think twice before they take their next flight!

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